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Wednesday, 27 May 2015

Ivory Coast to Sell $1.1 Billion of Domestic Bonds, Sukuk

Ivory Coast plans to sell $1.1 billion of debt in regional markets before the end of the year, including Islamic bonds denominated in the local currency.

The government will seek to sell Sukuk bonds that have maturities of more than five years, Budget Minister Abdourahmane Cisse said in an interview in Abidjan, Ivory Coast’s commercial capital, on Monday. Ivory Coast and seven other countries in West Africa use the CFA franc, which is tied to the euro.

“We want to diversify the types of investments” the nation offers, he said. “We basically want to give Ivory Coast exposure to a lot of different investors.”

Theworld’s largest cocoa producer is targeting growth of 10 percent this year and wants to lure more investors after a political crisis in 2010 led to months of violence and a default on dollar bonds. Ivory Coast is seeking to capitalize on demand for its debt after a sale of Eurobonds this year was four times oversubscribed. Yields on the $1 billion of securities due March 2028 fell 1 basis point to 6.39 percent as of 11:47 a.m. in London on Tuesday.

Former President Laurent Gbagbo is awaiting trial at the International Criminal Court in The Hague on charges of crimes against humanity relating to the death of about 3,000 people after he refused to concede an election loss in 2010 to Alassane Ouattara, who is now president.

Revenue collection rose 14 percent in the first four months of the year from the same period a year earlier, improving chances the government will meet its growth target, Cisse said. The government is on track to sell about 41.2 billion francs ($69 million) of stakes in companies it owns, he said.